Hang in there, Ron; you're doing great. My advice with the i7 would be not to stress out over a small outlay of cash (I picked up some used 80 gig drives for my kids for $10 and can usually find 160 gig refurbished for $20) for the huge peace of mind of knowing that your data is safe and sound in an antistatic bag in the back of your closet.
I don't know your financial situation so I have no way of knowing what that "small outlay of cash" would be for you, of course. $10 can be food out of some people's kids' mouths and no offense intended to anyone of any socioeconomic situation. You may or may not table the i7 when the Taurinus gets here, so do keep that in mind. You mentioned upthread that you have health issues and a wife, both of which need to be prioritized over computers. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I personally got rid of microsoft in 2005, got rid of non-free software in 2011ish, and am still trying to clean up family and close friends' machines. Please don't stress over verboseness. We all know you are trying to squish a talent into a foreign culture. Putting your own experiences into the printed word is going to give you the material to write some wonderful documentation someday. That will save us boardies the time and boredom of writing the same posts over and over again to help other newcomers who could not find answers in the wiki or by searching the existing posts of the forum.
